What research method did Halsey and his colleagues use?

Halsey's team surveyed a large sample of over 8,000 men born between 1913 and 1952. Each man was placed in the service, intermediate or working class by his father's occupation.

What did Halsey find about class and staying on in education?

A service-class boy was four times as likely as a working-class boy to be at school at 16. The service-class boy was eleven times as likely to reach university.

What did Halsey conclude about class inequality in education?

Halsey concluded that the tripartite system had not given working-class boys equal opportunities. Family income strongly affected whether a boy stayed on after the leaving age.

What are the criticisms of Halsey's study?

Halsey's sample excluded girls, so its findings may not apply to women. The men were educated before comprehensive schools, so the findings are now dated.

AQA GCSE Sociology 8192

The Sociological Approach

Topic overview Key sociological concepts Sociological perspectives: consensus and conflict Durkheim, Marx and Weber How sociological knowledge develops

Families

Topic overview Functions of families Family forms and diversity Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Changing relationships within families Criticisms of families Divorce in Britain since 1945

Education

Topic overview Roles and functions of education Education, capitalism and the correspondence principle Class and gender differences in achievement Ethnicity, parental choice and school markets Processes within schools

Crime and Deviance

Topic overview Social construction of crime and deviance Formal and informal social control Explanations of criminal behaviour Patterns of crime and public debates Crime statistics and the dark figure

Social Stratification

Topic overview Functionalist theory of stratification Marx, Weber and socio-economic class Factors affecting life chances Poverty as a social issue Forms of power and authority Power relationships

Research Methods

Topic overview Research design, hypotheses and data analysis Sampling methods Questionnaires and interviews Observation and mixed methods Types of data and official statistics Reliability, validity, ethics and practical issues

Education

Class and gender differences in achievement

3 things to know
Paper 1

Overview

Halsey, Heath and Ridge on class and staying on, material and cultural deprivation, cultural capital, Sue Sharpe on girls' priorities, the crisis of masculinity and the gendered curriculum.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What is cultural deprivation, and how does it explain class differences?

Key term

What is meant by educational achievement?

Numbers

Who were Halsey, Heath and Ridge, and what did they study?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is meant by educational achievement?
Model answer
Educational achievement is how well pupils do in the education system, usually measured by exam results. Sociologists compare achievement between social classes, genders and ethnic groups.
2
Who were Halsey, Heath and Ridge, and what did they study?
Model answer
Halsey, Anthony Heath and John Ridge were Oxford sociologists who published Origins and Destinations in 1980. Halsey and his colleagues studied how social class shaped boys' education in England and Wales.
3
What research method did Halsey and his colleagues use?
Model answer
Halsey's team surveyed a large sample of over 8,000 men born between 1913 and 1952. Each man was placed in the service, intermediate or working class by his father's occupation.
4
What did Halsey find about class and staying on in education?
Model answer
A service-class boy was four times as likely as a working-class boy to be at school at 16. The service-class boy was eleven times as likely to reach university.
5
What did Halsey conclude about class inequality in education?
Model answer
Halsey concluded that the tripartite system had not given working-class boys equal opportunities. Family income strongly affected whether a boy stayed on after the leaving age.
6
What are the criticisms of Halsey's study?
Model answer
Halsey's sample excluded girls, so its findings may not apply to women. The men were educated before comprehensive schools, so the findings are now dated.

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